Understanding Music Scales and the 12 Major Scales. part one

An understanding of music scales and the major scale in particular
is one of the most important single concepts to understand as we
continue to study the basic music theory required to get the most out of
your experience playing piano or electronic keyboards.

This piano lesson will cover how to construct all of the 12 major scales.

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Don't get hung up on memorizing all twelve scales. That will come over time.

If you know how to use the whole steps and half step formula you
will learn, and be able to visually see a few of them, that is enough
for now.

Before completing this lesson it is recommended that you
can identify and locate visually the notes on the Piano keyboard and
that you can name all the white and black keys. See the lesson on piano
keyboard layout.
Piano Keyboard Layout

As we move forward toward an understanding of music scales and
major scales it is important for you to get familiar with the concept of
whole steps sometimes called whole tones and half steps on the piano.

Q? What is a Half Step?

Answer: The smallest distance or musical interval between two notes.

If you were to start with middle C, and play each adjacent note,
either up (to the right) or down (to the left), without skipping any
notes, would would be moving up or down the keyboard in HALF STEPS.

Going up C, C# , D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A , A# B.

Notice there are a total of 12 notes that make up the basis of all western musical scales.

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